The present invention is directed toward a paper box having a tapered or gable top and, more particularly, toward a gable box top which includes a locking closure that allows the top to be held tightly closed.
Small paper or cardboard boxes are used for packaging and selling thousands of different consumer products including foodstuffs, toiletries, toys, gifts and many, many others. Such boxes or cartons are usually made up from a blank comprised of a planar sheet-like material such as paper, cardboard, acetate or other similar plastics. For convenience, all such materials and equivalents thereof will be referred to herein as paper.
Many boxes utilized to sell consumer goods are simply rectangularly shaped having end flaps that may be glued closed. Other boxes, however, tend to be somewhat more fanciful and are intended not only to enclose the consumer products but also to display them. It is also frequently desired to utilize closing flaps that are not glued so that they can be opened without destroying the same. Even further, it is frequently desirable to be able to reclose the box after it has been opened and to maintain the same in a closed condition.
One type of box which has been popular is substantially rectangularly shaped but includes a tapered top. Such boxes are well known and are frequently referred to as a gable top. A prime example of a gable top box or container is the standard paperboard milk carton which has been in use for many years. By way of example, such boxes are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,518,377; 4,744,467; 4,775,096 and 6,024,280.
Standard gable top boxes or cartons such as described above have tapered upper walls having their distal edges glued together. To open such cartons, the glued walls must be ripped apart. There are, therefore, no means for effectively reclosing such cartons.
Published U.S. Patent Application No. 2005/0017062 to Weintroub et al. discloses a cereal box which is essentially rectangularly shaped and which includes glued closure panels. However, once the box is opened, Weintroub et al. includes flaps that convert the box to a gable top box for reclosing. As shown most clearly in FIGS. 10 and 11 of the Weintroub et al. published application, the upper side panels of the box are configured to deform inwardly when the front and rear panels are brought together thereby creating a holding area or channel designated as 20 in the figures. This channel 20 is formed between the inside face of a side panel and the inside face of one of the front or rear panels. Flaps 21 and 22 that extend from the tops of the front and rear panels can be folded downwardly into the channel 20 as shown in FIG. 10 of Weintroub et al. in order to reclose the carton as shown in FIG. 11 thereof. The carton can then be reopened by reversing these steps.
While Weintroub et al. improves somewhat on prior cable top boxes by providing a mechanism for reclosing the same, the reclosure of Weintroub et al. is not always effective. The Weintroub et al. box or carton can frequently open on its own when it may not be desired. No means are provided for locking the flaps in their closed position.
Therefore, a need exists for a paper box or carton with a tapered or gable top that is easy to assemble and which includes an integral lock which can be opened and reclosed.